Satellite Train was originally conceived as a fun side project between friends. As the band releases its debut material, Icehouse’s Michael Paynter leads the way with some of his finest vocal performances. Satellite Train features musicians from Australian and American bands, including Michael Paynter of Icehouse, Gregg Bisonnete of Ringo Starr, John McCall of The Black Sorrows, Randy Jacobs of Paul Kelly, Shane O’Mara of Paul Kelly, Pasquale Monea of Stephen Cummings, Jamie Muhoberac of John Mayer and Chris Chaney of Jane’s Addicton.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Hello Satellite Train. What first got you into music?
Satellite Train consists of musicians from a variety of backgrounds. There are those who have blues backgrounds, others have classical or jazz backgrounds, and so on. There is a common theme among musicians that they are passionate about music and had a desire to become musicians from an early age. It may have been a love for a blues or jazz artist or a piece of classical music.
What do you think your role is in this world?
In the context of having a role in the world, the band can be compared to a pebble buried beneath a rock on a sandy beach. This is a fun project that has no grand ambitions for success. Our goal is to entertain listeners and provide them with a brief break from their daily routine.
Your latest track is 'Broken Heart'. Can you share with us the background of its creation and did any unusual things happen during its creation?
During the writing of this song, we wanted the raw emotion of having a broken heart to be expressed. As well as lyrically portraying the varying emotions one experiences during a period of heartbreak. All of us have experienced it at some point in our lives. Our hope is that the song can soothe a listener or two through some heartbreak they may be experiencing. This song also contains some beautiful acoustic guitar parts, so we decided to release an acoustic version as well. At the time the acoustic version was completed, it had a Lion King soundtrack feel to it. We were not aiming for that sound, but in the spirit of our experimental approach, we released it as it was.
What’s your scariest experience?
While I cannot speak for the rest of the band, for me it may have been the time a member of a group of people ran at me. and pointed a gun at my head just north of Western and Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. A shot was fired from the gun, but no ammunition was present. Following that, there was no confrontation; I simply walked away without commenting. I thought my natural reaction would have been to run, but I didn't. This kind of thing can happen so fast that you don't have time to react. Since then, I've been paying more attention to my surroundings.
How do you spend your time?
Spending time with family is a common theme for most members of the band outside of making a living through music. Outside of spending time with family, most musicians spend the majority of their time on national and international tours throughout the year. This leaves not much time for other activities. Our lifestyle certainly does not fit the description of what one might think of as a musician's lifestyle as portrayed in the media.
What are you most proud of?
Despite the fact that the songs may not reflect this, the release of the songs was not really planned. We just reached a point where, even though we experimented heavily, the latest batch of songs sounded pretty polished, and some musicians and engineers recommended sharing them. As a result, it became increasingly difficult to justify not releasing them. I would say that releasing some of those songs after years of just experimenting and shelving demos is something we are very proud of. On the Australian music map, Satellite Train does not exist and will likely never exist. Despite the fact that some of the musicians in Satellite Train have played in some of the most popular Australian bands in history, Satellite Train is an unheard of band in Australia. As a project, we have always considered it to be a bit of fun. We are pleased to have been able to release some songs that, upon reflection, sound okay.
If you could go open a show for any artist who would it be?
Several members of the band have already had the opportunity to do this. Taylor Swift would be my choice. If I were to dig into the past, I would choose The Beatles. I recently spoke with someone who shared the experience of not being able to obtain tickets to a Taylor Swift concert in New York. She described how she spent the entire working day attempting to obtain tickets and how upset she was when she was not successful. Fans of these bands adore them. If you were to support one of these artists, no one in the crowd would be interested in your performance. They would only want you to get off the stage and see their favorite band. However, I believe it would be fascinating to be involved in such an experience.
What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as an artist?
Working hard would be at the top of the list. Michael Paynter is one of the hardest-working musicians I have ever met. Either he is in the studio or out on tour with Jimmy Barnes or Icehouse. The same applies to Jamie Muhoberac's work with bands such as John Mayer and My Chemical Romance. In his band The Boneshakers and with Mindy Abair, Randy Jacobs has the same work ethic. I would also say continuing to experiment and bring into the songs various musical influences from each member and letting them influence the song in a certain way. As part of experimentation, the contributors to a song vary from song to song, and there are many more variations that we plan to explore.
Do you think that technology is improving lives?
Yes, definitely! Satellite Train is always looking for innovative ways to incorporate technology into our music. As an example, one of our upcoming releases, "Shameless," was mixed in spatial audio. The quality of the sound surprised me. When compared to the stereo mix, it resulted in the stereo mix sounding like it was on a flat surface. In contrast, the spatial mix surrounds you and makes you feel as if you have musicians playing all around you. That being said, I believe that the adoption of newer technologies in the music industry has been somewhat slow. At the present time, I do not see a widespread adoption of spatial audio mixes.
In addition, songs are released in 16-bit/44.1 kHz digital format. The digital system used on CDs 35 years ago was 16 bits/44.1 kHz. Although technology today allows for much higher audio bit rates, Spotify, etc. still require you to export your songs at 16 bits when releasing a song. While technology offers so much in the area of music, it appears to have a much slower adoption rate than mobile phones, for example, where newer technologies are adopted much more rapidly.
What superpower would you have and why?
Patience! In the end, the songs were released due to the fact that it became increasingly difficult to keep on shelving. Over the years, many of the songs have been very experimental in nature and probably are not suitable for release. So patience in finally bringing Satellite's music to the public would be our super power. The first few songs were released only when it made sense to do so. This required a great deal of patience.